Buying Your First Figure Skating Boots

Ready to buy your first pair of boots? Consult your skating friends, your group coach, maybe even the skating director or the LTS director. If you're lucky you'll get the name of a recommended skate fitter who has experience with figure skaters.You need to know that boot sizes are not the same as shoe sizes and vary by manufacturer. A fitter is very useful if not essential for your first pair.

What brand of boots to buy? Friends, coaches, fitter will all have recommendations. But you can also post questions on www.skatingforums.com.  We get questions over there about wide feet, skater weight, narrow feet, split widths (narrow heels-wide forefoot) all the time. Lots of people eager to share their experiences in answer to your questions.

You'll probably get recommendations for 'beginner boots' from one of the big companies: Jackson and Reidell are widely respected for their beginner skates (with attached beginner blades); these are costly but not expensive. Their ads say they can be used up to single jumps. They will last longer than  'play skates'. Play skates may look like figure skates, but they can also look like tennis shoes. Some people start out with these, but they won't carry you very far if you're serious. I've never heard anyone recommend buying skates from a sporting goods store. If all you want to do is stroke around a few times a year, play skates should be fine. If you want to work towards jumps and spins, then beginner skates is a better bet.

Unless you're really lucky, your first pair of boots will hurt like the devil. Since you have no experience, you won't know what's an acceptable level of discomfort.  If the boots fit so badly they actually damage your feet (I had a pair of boots that split a toenail) take them back right away and work with your fitter to get them replaced by a better size.

Your heel should not rise out of the heel of the boot. If the heel is loose but the forefoot of the boot fits fine, you can try a silipos gel tube around the heel. I found heat molding the heel of the boot to make it narrower, never worked for me.  I never had a boot heel that was too narrow. I think that can be stretched out with heat molding.

If the forefoot crushes your feet (blistered toes, the forefoot is so narrow you walk in pain after you skate), the skate fitter can help with heat molding. You might be able to return the boots and get better fitting ones if the problem is actually a bad fit on the fitter's part (e.g. having to skate with toes curled to get your feet in the boots). Get advice from a coach about your fit problems if you decide to take this route. (Note: you have to do this right away after you get the boots, don't wait 6 months and expect a refund or a swap). If you can't return the boots and the forefoot pain is crippling, there's an absolutely last ditch desperation (semi-destructive) solution if the forefoot of the boot is too narrow (NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS TO DO ON THEIR OWN). You'll never be able to sell or return your boots if you do this. But if you're thinking of buying new boots because the ones you have now are tearing up your forefeet, hey, it's worth considering. See if you can find a coach to help you out.

Here's the thing about your first pair of boots, it helps to think of them as 'throwaways'. There doesn't seem to be an aftermarket for used adult beginner skates, so you probably can't sell them. Enjoy them, and when you feel you want to move on to new boots, move on.  Don't let badly fitting boots destroy your feet because 'the boots still have wear in them'. If you're skating at a higher level than your boots can support, time for new ones. Don't end up with an injury because the boot can't support your ankle on a landing or the blade breaks. Boots are your most important tool from both a safety and health perspective.

Ready to skate more, but your boots are holding you back? Move on.

Well, you'll go through similar steps in picking boot 2 and maybe boot 3. But by the time you get to boots 4 (!!) you'll have enough knowledge to pick them (and the blades) out yourself. Good Luck!

That Moment When Your Boots Finally Fit Perfectly

My pwecious, my pwecious!

The Magic Circle

Brian Boitano's sports physician, Dr. James G. Garrick, M.D. , wrote a really good book called Peak Condition back in 1986. There's a lot of stuff in this book that's about figure skating, and much useful information about home treatment of the usual injuries that athletes accumulate. It's still available in the used book section of Amazon, and is  worth far, far more than the few cents it costs used. A quarter century on, and it's still one of those books worth reading.

I happened to have a copy of his book on hand when I broke my ankle, and he describes a way of supporting the ankle after a sprain that I found very useful during my skating restart.

He recommends supporting the soft tissues of the ankles after a sprain. You can't get this with a splint, or an ACE bandage. Instead, you need something that presses on the soft tissues around the ankle bone, without pressing on the ankle bone itself. To get that soft tissue pressure, you need something that has a hole in it, and fits around the knob of the ankle bone. It can be either  donut or U shaped. This way, when you wrap over it with an ACE bandage pressure is applied directly to the soft tissues of the ankle and you get much, much better support.

After I got out of my cast and was allowed to skate again, I found that my ankle was wonky. I needed to support the soft tissues to get past the first few months of skating while I rebuilt my muscles and strength in that ankle. So taking a hint from Peak Condition, I got one of these:

Skating Safe Donut Gel Pad

It really helped the shaft of the boot support the ankle. I came to think of it as a magic circle.  For the first few months after I restarted, I wore it under the elastic ankle brace I wore when skating. Just like the good doctor said, I had much better support than with the elastic brace alone, and I didn't have to over tighten my laces to get support from the shaft.

(edit) After using the Magic Circle in my freestyle boots for a year, I didn't need it anymore. The boot alone was enough to support my ankle. Then I switched to ice dance. After a year of skating dance in freestyle boots, I switched to ice dance boots. These have a lower shaft and although they are sturdy in the shaft--lots of leather in there--they're really a different boot in many ways from the freestyle boot.

I've had trouble with my right dance boot ever since I got them. Dance boots don't give quite the support a freestyle boot does. And what was unnoticeable with the ankle in freestyle boots was very noticeable in dance boots. I've been trying boot fixes, but finally I gave up and said to myself, "It's not the boot, it's the ankle." I ordered new donuts (where does stuff go when you don't use it every day?), plopped them into place over my ankle bone and laced the boot up.

It was one of those miracles on ice--minus the hockey team. The fix instantaneously solved my wonky ankle problem. I no longer needed to lace the boots so tight my toes went numb. I still have to wear a silipos gel tube to keep the heel in place, but that ankle feels as secure as the one that was never broken. My skating on that side is also much more secure as I no longer have the fear that that ankle is going to collapse.

I really think the gel donut is the best answer I've found. It has the right thickness and resiliency. It bends but it doesn't collapse when you put pressure on it. It wears a long time, can be easily cleaned, and is pretty close to indestructible If you want to try this out, but aren't sure if it's what you need, try using a makeup sponge or foam pad and cut a circle in the center. These won't give you the firmness or the wearability of the gel donut, but it may work (you may need several to get the firmness needed). I also once cut a hole in a gel lace bite pad and tried that, but found the donuts were just the perfect thickness. I never tried this, but if you can find a something like a thick soft felt pad, that would probably be okay too. I used my stocking to hold it on while I put my boots on, but you could also use an ACE bandage, or some adhesive tape.

Yes, I'm a real skater now. It's always something with the boots, isn't it?

PS. The book has some Boitano boot anecdotes. I'm not the only one with issues.

Brian Boitano's Skates, 1988 (Harlicks)

Pronation Nation--Inside the Boot

So the first day of this series I wrote about the why of pronation. Yesterday I wrote about how strengthening the feet can help with your pronation. Today, I'm going to cover the wedging inside the boot.

In summary, what I'm aiming for is to gently rotate my feet to their outside edge, so that gravity pulls directly through the blade into the center of the foot, When I'm skating on one leg, I want to get a straight line from my hip to my knee, to my ankle, to my foot, to the blade, to the ice. If there are any angles in there, say at the ankle, I can to use my toes to rotate my foot to the outside. To prevent foot fatigue and pain I use a wedge in the boot to do most of the work.

 I started out with custom walking orthotics prescribed for me by an elderly orthopedic surgeon specializing in feet. (He was a consultant to the LA Rams, so yes, this was a loooong time ago.) These orthotics had to be in flat shoes so they wouldn't work in skates. My experience with the custom orthotics built for my skates last year, was that all the measurements etc. were taken as if they were for flat shoes. These expensive skating custom orthotics were a total waste of money. I tore them apart and used the sturdy plastic insole to support my own adjustments. That worked great. Then one of the orthotics disappeared when it fell out of my boot someplace. I then ended with the solution I'm about to describe.

 

Hey, it made me laugh

So, here's all the stuff I use.

1. Superfeet Skating insoles--I didn't think they'd be sturdy enough, but they are

2. A collection of neoprene and gel pads from the feet section of the drug store. I cut these up for padding and stuffing under the Superfeet insoles. I like the gel pads, but some places they're too thick so I use the neoprene instead. 

3. Thick felt chair tips from the hardware store (don't get the thin green ones used for lamps). These are put on the legs of tables and chairs to keep them from scratching wood floors. The best ones are the ones with a sticky back so you don't have to use glue.

4. An admonition--feet are different. What works in one boot, may not work in the other. Fit your boots separately.

Start with boots that fit you for length and width. This isn't a substitute for a good fit.

Step 1: I fit the forefoot of my boot so that my toes are comfortable, but so  they don't  have so much room they can flop around in the toe of the boot.This will mean I may need to put a pieces of a flat neoprene insole (and/or gel pads) under the Superfeet Skating insole. I  get the forefoot in the boot to fit so that when I curl my toes a just little, the top of the boot restrains them. I don't want to be able to curl them so much that they don't bump into the leather of the boot. And yes, I've had a boot fit that way.  Anyway, use the gel pads if you need a big change, and the neoprense pads if you need to make a small change. You can also use heel pads too, and just cut them to fit.

My experience has been I can't put a wedge in the forefoot that will do any good. I do all my wedging in the heel and it works well for me. I call it 'wedging' but you're not putting in a wedge. You're making the insole angle as if there is a wedge underneath it. This is why you need a good sturdy insole, and not a soft one.

Step 2: Putting in the wedges. Take the felt chair tips and peel off the paper backing. I then start by putting one felt tip at the outside (EDIT) inside edge of the underside of the heel of the superfeet insole. It's best to do this at the rink, because after I put the insoles back in the skates I'll want to go skate. If one chair tip doesn't work I try putting a second on top of it to angle the insole even more.  You can fiddle around all you want with this approach. Stack chair tips, put them side by side, whatever. It's up to you to find out what makes you skate better. When I test the boots, I do the wedging simultaneously. So it's not fix one boot then then other. It's fix both, experiment, fix, experiment.....

In the end the boots may not need identical adjustment. I skate with one boot without wedging, one with. 

That's pretty much all there is to it. Because I have an idea of what causes my pronation, I'm able to make adjustments in the boot.  If you try this and it works for you, you've saved a lot of money. If it doesn't work for you, you're out at most $50-60, of which $40 is for the Superfeet. If it doesn't work for you then you can always try out of the boot adjustments; moving the blade and shimming the blade. That's something you'll need to take up with your fitter.